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An airline service trolley, also known as an airline catering trolley, airline meal trolley, or trolley cart, is a small
An airline service trolley, also known as an airline catering trolley, airline meal trolley, or trolley cart, is a small serving cart
A serving cart is a kind of smaller food cart. It is typically used by restaurants to deliver or display food.
Serving carts are also used in households, airplanes, and trains.
Types
* Dessert cart (known as a sweet trolley in the UK) – This i ...
supplied by an air carrier for use by flight attendant
A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attenda ...
s inside the aircraft for transport of beverages, airline meal
An airline meal, airline food, or in-flight meal is a meal served to passengers on board a commercial airliner. These meals are prepared by specialist airline catering services and are normally served to passengers using an airline service tro ...
s, and other items during a flight.
History
The airline service trolley system was introduced in the late 1960s at the same time as a new generation of large "widebody" aircraft were entering into service with the airlines. The significantly larger number of passengers on these aircraft meant that meals could no longer be efficiently delivered by hand, as they had been until that time. The growth of at-seat service on long distance rail has led to the adoption of similar service trollies for this purpose.Design
The trolley is a rigid box form withcaster
A caster (or castor) is an undriven wheel that is designed to be attached to the bottom of a larger object (the "vehicle") to enable that object to be moved.
Casters are used in numerous applications, including shopping carts, office chairs, t ...
ing wheels at each corner that can be braked to hold the trolley in position. Full and half size trollies are made. The front (both full and half size) and rear (full size only) have doors, and handles are provided at the top. There are currently several design families of trolley in use:
*ACE – mainly used by British Airways
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...
which originated the specification, and produced by Driessen
*ATLAS – the most common size, used by approximately 80% of airlines. It was named for the initial group of carriers who originated the specification: Alitalia
Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. ...
, TAP, Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...
, Air France
Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...
, and Sabena.
*KSSU – named for KLM
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),
, Swissair
Swissair (German language, German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French language, French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne, stylised as swissair) was the Flag carrier, national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and ban ...
, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, and UTA
Uta or UTA may refer to:
Universities
*University of Texas at Arlington, in the United States
*University of Texas at Austin, in the United States
*University of Tarapacá, in Chile
*University of Tampere, in Finland
Sports
* FC UTA Arad, a R ...
; also used by Cathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, or simply Cathay Pacific, is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main airline hub, hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and its subsidiaries have schedule ...
Individual carriers often customize an existing trolley family for their uses.
Full size ATLAS trolleys are generally about wide, tall, long, and weigh about unladen. Lighter weight designs are also available and they also exist in half size ( long)
See also
*Aircraft ground handling
In aviation, aircraft ground handling or ground operations defines the servicing of an aircraft while it is on the ground and (usually) parked at a Gate (airport), terminal gate of an airport.
Overview
Many airlines subcontract ground hand ...
* Galley
A galley is a type of ship optimised for propulsion by oars. Galleys were historically used for naval warfare, warfare, Maritime transport, trade, and piracy mostly in the seas surrounding Europe. It developed in the Mediterranean world during ...
* Trolley (disambiguation)
References
{{Airline catering Airline catering Serving and dining